UBRARYOF^ONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



DIARY 



OK A VISIT TO 



NEWPORT, NEW YORK, AND PHILADELPHIA 



DURING THE SUMMER OF 1815, 



BY 

TIMOTHY BIGELOW. 



lEliitcti 1)0 a ©rnntison. 



/ 




'Scripta feiunt auiios." — Ovid. 



BOSTON: 

PRINTED FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION. 

1880. 



7r 






University Press : 

JOUN WiLSOX AND SON, CAMUUIDGE. 



N O T E. 

OOON after editing in 1876 the "Journal of a 
Tour to Niagara Falls," I found among some 
family papers this Diary by the same author. I 
am glad to draw it from the undisturbed obscurity 
of sixty years, and to record my sense of the in- 
terest and value of such writings by putting it in 
a form which ensures its preservation. 

Mr. Timothy Williams (H. U. 1784), who accom- 
l)anied my grandfather on this journey as well as 
on the former one, was his contemporary in college 
and afterwards his most intimate friend. Such was 
their intimacy that, it is said, one was seldom seen 
without the other. Mr. Williams was a well-known 
merchant of Boston, and a very intelligent, genial, 
and estimable man. He died in 1846. 

I have altered the spelling in the Diary to con- 
form to modern usage, and have occasionally in- 
serted a word in brackets. The numbers in the 
margin are copied from the manuscript, and give 
the distance from place to place. 

A. L. 
Boston, March 8, 1880. 




DIARY 



/^X Monday the third day of July, 1815, at 
^■^^ eight o'clock, A.M., Messrs. Williams and 
Bigelow left Boston in the Providence stage-coach. 
Dined at Polly's in Wrentham, — a good house. 
We had a travelling companion, a manufacturer 
belonging to Attleboro', returning from Portland, 
who informed us that, coming into Boston from 
sea yesterday, he saw Commodore Bainbridge and 
his squadron under weigh [way] for the Mediter- 
ranean, and that the " Independence " sailed well.* 



21 



* On Sunday last, the United States squadron, lately equipped 
in this harbor, sailed for the Mediterranean, composed of the 
Independence, 74, Capt. Crane, bearing the broad pendant of Com. 
Bainbridge; Erie, 18, Capt. Ridgeley; Chippewa, 10, L't.-Com. 
Reid ; and L?jnx, 7, L't. Dukehart. 

Commodore Bainbridge's squadron was seen 24 hours out, 
having had a fine run. The commodore communicated a note to 
a friend, by the pilot, in which he says he was perfectly satisfied 
with the trim and sailing of the Independence. — From the " Co- 
lumbian Centinel" of July 5th and 8th, 1815. 



b DIARY OF A 

20 To Providence. Chapotin's (ordinary). On 
Seekonk plain, a smart thunder-shower. Learned 
that the lightning struck in Providence, and killed 
a horse, &c. Mr. Scott, well-informed, civil, and 
communicative ; Mr. Colman, brother of Chapotin, 
very attentive. Providence is considerably enlarged 
since we last saw [it], and improved in the quality 
and style of building. It exhibits many marks of 
prosperity. 

30 Tuesday, July 4th. To Newport by packet, 
Captain Gardner ; many passengers. Captain Tay- 
lor, late of the United States Navy, was one. He 
was in the same ship with Commodore Perry at the 
battle on Lake Erie, and was left in the command 
of the ship when Perry left her. He seems to 
have been dismissed the service ; perhaps for being 
federal. Our passage was uncommonly pleasant ; 
wind and tide were favorable, and we were but 
four or five hours from Providence to Newport. 
Dined at Daws's (a servant, formerly Mr. Ly- 
man's, attended us). Mr. Milliken, of Frankfort, a 
Democratic Representative in Massachusetts Gen- 
eral Court, was there. He has a cargo of lumber, 
which he is trying to sell. 

The streets are dressed with Hags and other 
decorations ; the inhabitants, with many people 
from neighboring towns, in their best. Admired 



VISIT TO NEWPORT, ETC. t 

the fine complexion of the females, but noticed a 
particular Rhode Island air and manner in the 
walk and deportment. All, male and female, walk 
in the middle of the street. It is attended with 
less inconvenience than might be supposed, for we 
saw not a single pair of wheels in motion while 
we were in Newport. 

Afternoon to South Kingston. The ferry to 8 
Connonicut, three miles ; across that island, one 
mile ; and the ferry thence to the Narragansett 
shore at South Kingston, three miles more ; and 
to Gardner's house one mile. Among our fellow- 
passengers over the ferries, &c., were Governor 
Brown and an old slave ship-master, eighty-two 
years old ; has become very poor, but says he 
should be glad now to go a voyage to Africa for 
slaves ! 

Wednesday, July 5th. Hired our host Gardner 
to carry us in his coach to New London. To 15 
General Stanton's in Charlestown to breakfast (pass- 
ing the Pettaquamscot, Saucatucket, Taugwunk 
Hill, &c.. Sec). To Perkins's, in Groton, to dine, 22 
— a miserable house. The only agreeable thing 
we met with was civil manners. In this stage, we 
passed the farm which Mr. Babcock sold for the 
money with which he made his fortune, — for 
fifteen dollars per acre, — would now bring forty- 



O DIARY OF A 

five ; also Christopher Champlain's great farm, 
having on it the largest barn in Rhode Island, — 
though it is not very large ; and also the house 
where Mr. Babcock was born, in Westerly. The 
Mystic River divides Stonington from Groton. 

7 Afternoon, to New London. The ferry is well 
attended, and the passage expeditious. The 
Thames is a fine river for one so small ; the 
water is fourteen fathoms deep. In the late war, 
the frigates blockaded by the British were eleven 
miles above New London. We here took a small, 
handsome coach and pair, with a driver, for New 
Haven. Our stay in New London was but half an 
hour, as we saw nothing particularly interesting in 
the place, except the forts Trumbull and Griswold 
on the opposite shores of New London and Groton. 

20 To Seabrook [Saybrook]. The ferry over the 
Connecticut is very badly attended and managed. 
The river is about half a mile wide, the depth 
thirty-five feet. Though the tide set strongly up, 
the water was not salt. The river passes into the 
Sound between two distinct capes, without forming 
a bay, as is more common at the mouths of rivers. 
On the westerly cape is a light-house. We saw 
the Connecticut River with the same kind of sen- 
sations that one has in meeting an old friend in a 
strange place. The ferry had detained us an hour, 



YISIT TO NEWPORT, ETC. y 

after which we proceeded to Pratt's, an excellent 2^ 
house, to sleep. 

Thursday, July 6th. To New Haven. Ten 34 
miles short of New Haven, one of our axletrees 
broke ; and we hired a Mr. E-odgers to take us to 
that city in a one-horse wagon. Our driver is a 
singular character. Says he was left an orphan at 
fourteen, which has made him headstrong'; has a 
great real estate, horses, tfcc, a store in North Caro- 
lina, &c., but works out some on hire. Has been 
in all the States but the Eastern and Georgia. 
Butler's, at New Haven, is an excellent house. 
Hitherto our tour has been prosperous. From 
Boston, the weather was warm, but the wind was 
ahead ; had but one fellow-passenger ; the wind 
and weather to Newport very fine, allowing us a 
charming view of the surrounding country. Saw 
Newport in its best ; found immediately the man 
to carry us to New London ; were just in time all 
the way ; and, even when our axle broke, Rodgers 
rode up within ten minutes, and engaged to take 
us to New Haven to dine, which he did. 

Friday, July 7th. Judge Baldwin called on us, 
and conducted us to the new meeting-houses and 
Gothic church. Saw in the burying-ground the 
graves of Whalley and Dixwell, two of King 
Charles's judges. To the College and mineralogi- 



10 DIARY OF A 

cal apartments. Professor Silliman very attentive 
and communicative. The collection of minerals, 
fossils, &c., is very splendid, doubtless the best in 
America : principally from Colonel Gibbs. In the 
afternoon to the East E,ock, composed of granite at 
the surface and of sandstone under that. Saw INIr. 
Whitney's wonderful gun manufactory.* His ma- 
chinery, with which every operation is performed, 
is so accurate that any article belonging to any one 
of his muskets will equally well fit any other of 
them. Saw also his famous machine for cleaning 
cotton ; so useful that without [it], we were in- 
formed from the best authority, cotton could not 
be cultivated in the Southern States. He first con- 
ceived the idea while private tutor in the family of 
General Greene in Georgia.! 

* In a communication to the "Boston Daily Advertiser" of 
Feb. 16, 1880, headed "Our Great Inventors," is the following 
remark: "It will thus be seen that this system [the uniformity 
system] forms an epoch in mechanic arts, — the greatest probably 
since the introduction of steam power, — and it becomes important 
to know when, where, and hy lohom did this system originate." For 
information on this subject the reader is referred to a very interest- 
ing memoir of Eli Whitney, published in the " Am. Jour, of 
Science and Arts " for January, 1832, which leaves no doubt that 
he was the originator of the ' ' uniformity system. " His first contract 
under this system was made with the government, Jan. 14, 1798, 
for ten thousand stand of arms. He established his works at the 
foot of East Rock, within two miles of New Haven. — Ed. 

f Mr. Whitney's grandfather and Mr. Baldwin's grandmother 
[were] brother and sister. Mrs. Baldwin was a Sherman, and her 
mother was a Prescott, of the Concord family. 



VISIT TO NEWPORT, ETC. H 

Saturday, July 8th. Left New Haven at six a.m., 75 
and in nine and a quarter hours arrived at New 
York in the steamboat " Fulton." For a time we 
had thick weather and rain, but at length it cleared 
off, and we had a fine view of the Sound with its 
islands, bays, and neighboring shores. In the Nar- 
rows and through Hell Gate, we made head almost 
directly against the wind, which was fresh, passing 
every thing under sail going the same way. Our 
accommodations were excellent. There were, per- 
haps, from sixty to one hundred passengers : among 
them, Messrs. Hillhouse, Dagget, and Theodore 
Dwight ; Mr. Gill and family moving to Philadel- 
phia ; Mr. McCracken, out of health, going to 
Europe ; Gibbons and Sam Bell ! Miss Ralston, of 
Philadelphia, returning from a visit to her friends 
in Middletown, — a pleasant young lady. 

Sunday, July 9th. Mr. Williams went with 
Mr. Remsen to Flushing on Long Island. Mr. 
Olmsby, a clerk of Mr. Remsen, attended Mr. 
Bigelow to the Reformed Dutch Church, Mr. Mat- 
thews's, in the morning ; and to Dr. Romayn's 
in the afternoon. Mr. Matthews gave us a very 
sensible discourse ; Dr. Romayn prayed very ably, 
but he had an assistant who preached. 

Monday, July 10th. Rode out on Manhattan 
(Manhatus) or New York Island five or six miles 



12 DIARY OF A 

north, and returned by the East River road. We 
saw several handsome country-seats, but found the 
country in general rough, and not so well cultivated 
as we expected. Our hackman was from Port- 
land. We are at the Washington Hotel, kept by 
Mclntyre. The bar attendant was from Boston. 
The company too large, and composed too much 
of decayed officers and dissipated young men. We 
saw here, however, Mr. Cunningham, a planter, 
seventy-two years old, who has lived thirty-eight 
years in Charleston ; General Morris, a planter ; 
and young Eutledge, who graduated at Cambridge. 
Messrs. Dagget and Remsen spent the evening with 
us. This morning, Isaac Gouverneur, a young 
gentleman of good connections and of property, 
died of the wound he received on Saturday last 
in a duel with one Maxwell, a lawyer, who was a 
boarder in our house, but v/ho left it yesterday. 
The quarrel arose on the evening of the fourth of 
July, concerning two girls of ill fame ! Both 
young men are well spoken of, but it is said that 
Gouverneur was haughty and obstinate. His 
I mother, a widow, is almost distracted at his loss. 
The Corporation are incensed, and seem deter- 
mined to punish Maxwell and the seconds. 

Tuesday, July 11th. Ascended to the cupola 
of the City Hall, a noble building of marble, for 



VISIT TO NEWPORT, ETC. 



13 



the accommodation of courts, and city officers. 
We had a commanding view of the city and its 
environs. The extent seems much greater than 
in traversing the streets. To Paulas Hook in the 1 
steam-ferry boat ; the accommodations admirable ; 
passed in ten minutes. Took the stage-coach to 9 
Newark, crossing the Hackensack, a marsh five 
miles over, and the Passaic. Both rivers have 
drawbridges. Saw a large number of people en- 
camped on the marshes in the manner of soldiers, 
who were employed in diking the vast marshes 
bounding on the Hackensack. On some marsh 
land on the Passaic, diked about four years since, 
we saw the heaviest English grass we had seen 
this year. 

Gifford's, at Newark, is a good house. The 
town is pleasant, well laid out, and, though small, 
has the air of a city ! Took a private carriage for 19 
Morristown. Land generally hard and cold, but 
pretty well cultivated. A greater proportion of it 
is in tillage than in New England. It is said that 
their good crops are all owing to plaster or lime. 
Some quince-trees here are of the size of apple- 
trees. Pass through Springfield, recross the Pas- 
saic at Chatham. Hayden's, in Morristown, is a 
good house, clean and commodious. Our stage- 
driver is Johnson, from Newbury port. 



14 DIARY or A 

14 Wednesday, July 12tli. After dining, to Black 
River, so called, though there is no river near. 
The legal name of the town is Chester. Mr. Keen, 
grandson of late surveyor-general of Pennsyl- 
vania, travelled with us, bound to Tyoga Point, &c., 
— an intelligent man. Drake's, in Chester, is a 
good house, but not yet finished. 

44 Thursday, July 13th. To Easton, by the way 
of Hacketstown, where is a mineral spring, at 
Schooley's Mountain, so called. The water is cha- 
lybeate. We dined at another Drake's, at Mans- 
field. Crossed the Muskonetkong and Pohatkong 
Rivers. Saw the teazle growing wild. At Easton, 
crossed the Delaware into Pennsylvania. We were 
not a little surprised to find the river so small, ap- 
parently not larger than the Concord, the Nashua, 
or the Charles at Watertown below the bridge, in 
Massachusetts. Just above Easton, the river in 
some remote age has forced its way through a 
mountain, the corresponding cliff's of which now 
remaining, aff"ord evidence of the fact, though the 
width of a river at a great depth below the con- 
tiguous precipices is very small. A little below 
the village, the Lehigh joins the Delaware: it has 
about half as much water. Mount Jefferson has a 
precipice to the northwest and west nearly two 
hundred feet high and nearly perpendicular. A 



VISIT TO NEWPORT, ETC. 15 

man and a boy have lately fallen from it and been 
destroyed. 

Easton is a handsome village, growing, built 
chiefly of stone. White's tavern is a good house ; 
and we observed in the neighboring country vast 
quantities of excellent wheat, rye, barley, flax, &c., 
and good orchards, except that the peach orchards 
appear to be declining, and in some instances have 
been entirely cut down. Mr. Sitznams and Mr. 
Ross live in this place. We here parted with Mr. 
Keen, who takes the stage to Wilkesbarre, Tyoga, 
&c. ; showed us a remarkable fowling-piece, made 
to take to pieces so as to be carried in a small bag. 

Friday, July 14th. Took the stage for Philadel- 60 
phia. For the first fourteen miles, the country 
was very hilly and rough ; it afterwards subsides. 
We had views during the whole journey, almost 
perpetually, of extensive fields of wheat, rye, buck- 
wheat, oats, corn, flax, &c. The wheat especially 
was very abundant and very fine. The tall Vir- 
ginia corn began to appear soon after leaving 
Easton, occasionally intermixed with our New 
England kind of corn. The houses and barns in 
Pennsylvania are chiefly built of stone, and a great 
part of the people through this day's journey speak 
the German language. Six out of nine passengers 
in our stage-coach spoke or understood German. 



16 DIARY OF A 

A woman passenger was born at Pfaltz near Mann- 
heim and Mainz on the Rhine, After a fatiguing 
journey in a sultry day, we arrived in the evening 
at the Mansion House, so called, a good house 
kept by Renshaw. 

Saturday, July 15 th. Mr. Meredith attended 
us to the library, and then politely sent his son to 
show us Peale's Museum, the Hospital, &c. We 
were gratified to observe on a pedestal in front of 
the Hospital a fine bronze statue of William Penn. 
Of Dr. Franklin, the busts, pictures, and prints 
were everywhere to be seen. We this morning 
visited the seventy-four gun-ship " Franklin " on the 
stocks, attended by Lieutenant Morgan. She is a 
well-built ship, has less timber and more breadth of 
beam than the " Independence," and is expected to 
carry her lower ports from four to five feet above 
the water. Afternoon, crossed the Schuylkill by 
the middle bridge, and rode up to the Falls, where 
we saw several manufactories, &c. ; took tea at one 
of the houses of resort for Philadelphians at the 
Falls on the east side, and returned by the turn- 
pike to the city. 

We this morning saw Colonel Perkins, of Bos- 
ton, who put in requisition his friends Meredith 
and Vaughan to take care of us, and went [left] 
himself for Boston. This evening found at our 



VISIT TO NEWPORT, ETC. 17 

house Generals Gushing and Boyd, Judge Brack- 
enridge, »S:c., &c. 

Sunday, July 16th. Attended the Unitarian 
meeting with Mr. Vaughan in the morning. Mr. Ed- 
does, a layman, preached very well. Dined at Mr. 
Vaughan's, where we met Messrs. Huger and Frost 
of South Carolina, Uunbar of the Natchez, who 
are all attending the medical lectures, and Horatio 
Bigelow, who has opened a broker's office here. 
In the afternoon, attended the German Lutheran 
Church, and heard Mr. Myers. He preached a 
very good sermon, perhaps too liberal. The con- 
gregation and service were neat, orderly, and 
proper. After service, crossed the Schuylkill, and 
rode to Judge Peters's with Mr. Vaughan. The 
Judge calls himself seventy-two years old ; appears 
to be in a green old age, but is said to be a little 
dull of late, because his youngest and last daugh- 
ter is about to be married. We delivered him a 
letter from Mr. Pickering. He expressed his affec- 
tionate regards for Mr. P in a very feeling 

manner. Judge Peters's house commands a view 
of a part of the Schuylkill and of the city. We 
saw in his grounds the Bignonia radicans, which 
will run one hundred feet. It grows wild in Vir- 
ginia, and has a beautiful red flower, of which the 
humming-birds are very fond. Saw also a large 



18 DIARY OF A 

pecan-nut-tree ; it somewhat resembles the black- 
walnut-tree, but has never borne fruit. The black- 
walnut and tulip trees grow here very common, 
from two to three feet [and] over. The Judge 
showed a well-grown Spanish chestnut-tree, of 
which he related the following anecdote. General 
Washington, being at his house, said to him, " I 
have three Spanish chestnuts in my pocket. You 
shall have one, if you will plant it." Judge Peters 
replied, " I will dig the hole, if you will put the 
nut in it." It was done accordingly. The Judge 
has a boxwood-tree twenty-five or thirty feet high. 
He says that foreigners as well as others say it is 
the tallest they ever saw. 

The city of Philadelphia is supplied with water 
I principally from the Schuylkill, the water from 
which is raised by steam to the amount of five 
hundred thousand gallons per day. It is first 
received by a cistern near the banks of the Schuyl- 
kill, containing fifteen hundred thousand gallons, 
from whence it is distributed to the city through 
pipes made of white oak, not inserted into each 
other, but the junction is by iron terminations of 
six inches long in each log. Judge Peters spoke 
of Governor Strong with great respect. We had 
the best view of Philadelphia from the deck of the 
"Franklin." There is no considerable elevation 



VISIT TO NEWPORT, ETC. 19 

of ground in the city, and but two steeples ! There 
are also two shot-towers, one square and one circu- 
lar, which, except one of the steeples, are the most 
striking objects in a general view of the city. The 
greatness of the city is most effectually perceived 
by the perpetual recurrence of long, well-built, and 
fully peopled streets, very much resembling each 
other. The inhabitants estimate their population, 
including the Liberties, &c., at one hundred and 
thirty thousand. New York numbers one hundred 
thousand. 

Monday, July 17th. Took the steamboat for 30 
Trenton at quarter past seven, a.m. Our accom- 
modations on board were very good. Stopped to 
land and receive passengers at Burlington, Bristol, 
and Bordentown on our passage. At Trenton, 
passed the brook [Assanpink], made memorable 
as the barrier which saved General Washington 
and his little army from destruction by Cornwallis 
the night before Washington's victory at Princeton. 

At Trenton, took a stage-coach for Brunswick. 28 
Passed through Princeton. The college is large, 
of stone ; has three cross-entries. It is said that 
the institution is not as respectable as under the 
former president. We saw also a new large brick 
building at Brunswick which we were told was a 
college. We found the road this day execrable, 



20 DIARY OF A 

though a turnpike, — although the country is level 
most of the way. Such a road would not be toler- 
ated in New England. We found Brunswick a 
more considerable place than we expected. The 
Raritan is navigable three or four miles above the 
town. There is a handsome toll-bridge over it, 
raised on nine arches. Our accommodations at 
Degraw's were decent. Our stage-driver from 
Trenton was a Meriam from Mason, New Hamp- 
shire. 

Tuesday, July 18th. Embarked on board the 
steamboat about a mile below the bridge, there not 
being depth of water sufficient to allow a nearer 
approach to Brunswick. We found the water of 
the Raritan the dirtiest we ever saw, fouled with a 
reddish clay, the prevailing soil of the contiguous 
country. The river winds very much in extensive 
marshes. To the right we pass the mouths of 
Lawrence's Creek and South Eiver ; on the left, at 
the headland \X] stands Willetstown, commonly 
called "Washington. Passing out into Raritan Bay, 
the water becomes clear ; but we soon bend off to 
the left into Staten Island Sound, and pass several 
miles between that island and the Jersey shore. 
See the mouths of Rahway River and Elizabeth- 
town Creek to the left, and open into Newark 
Bay at its south-western corner. This bay extends 



VISIT TO NEWPORT, ETC. 21 

from Staten Island to the mouths of the Hacken- 
sack and Passaic, say from six to ten miles. We 
coast the Staten Island shore, and enter the 
" Kills " so called, a narrow Bosphorus opening 
into New York Bay ; passing into which, we have 
to the right a view of Sandy Hook and the ocean, 
and to the left, to which we now turn, of New 
York and the neighboring islands, fortifications, 
&c.^ We arrived in New York at one o'clock, hav- 
ing made our passage from Brunswick in seven 40 
hours, though some of the time against wind and 
tide. At Mrs. Marselens's, Mechanics' Hall, a 
better house than Washington Hall, but the ser- 
vants are not good. Saw here Mr. Hare, of Phila- 
delphia, — whom we had seen at New Haven, — 
Mr. Wiggin, &c. Counted twelve hundred and 
thirty-six widows in the New York Directory. 

Wednesday, July 19th. With Mr. llemsen 
crossed the East River to Brooklyn, on Long 
Island, a handsome village with paved streets. 
Took a hackney-coach to Flatbush, Gravesend Bay 
(memorable for Washington's defeat, August 26th, 
1776), where the British troops landed, and to 
Bath in New Utrecht, to breakfast. We returned 
by the seashore, commanding a noble view of New 

^ Staten Island is Richmond County. Long Island has King's, 
Queen's, and Sull'olk. 



22 DIARY OF A 

York Bay, Navesink, beyond Sandy Hook, the Nar- 
rows, Staten Island, New York and Jersey shore, 
through immense plantations of melons, squashes, 
cucumbers, raspberries, &c., &c., over the mill-dam 
to Brooklyn again. Apricots, cherries, and other 
fruit-trees grow on the cliffs down almost to the 
water's edge. Reached New York at twelve. 

Thursday, July 20th. At eight o'clock, a.m., 
embarked on board the steamboat " Firefly," with 
about fifty passengers. Mr. Remsen came on board 
to find us acquaintance, and introduced us to Mr. 
Lydig, a very intelligent and gentlemanly man. 
Found also on board Mr. Potter, a respectable 
planter of South Carolina, and his family, — he was 
much delighted with the beauties of the Hudson, — 
Mrs. Phillips and her daughter; Mr. Law and 
daughter, of Philadelphia ; Messrs. Howards, of 
Baltimore ; and Mr. Street, a lawyer of Pough- 
keepsie. The river for many miles from New 
York is between one and two miles wide. Passed 
Hamilton's monument, a white marble obelisk, 
erected on the spot where he fell. Fort Washing- 
ton is on Manhattan Island. Fort Lee is nearly 
opposite on the Jersey shore. Spuyten Duyvel 
Creek is the water which divides Manhattan Island 
from the mainland of Westchester. Tappan Sea 
is an enlargement of the river to perhaps four miles 



VISIT TO NEWPORT, ETC. 23 

wide for twelve or fourteen miles in length. On 
tlie east is Tarry town, where Andre was taken. A 
large tulip-tree under which he was when taken, it 
is said, was shivered to pieces by lightning the day 
on which Arnold died. Andre's grave is in an 
open field in Tappan, with nothing to mark it but a 
small tree near it, about two miles west of the river. 
Pass the mouth of Croton Bay, by which the 
river of that name communicates with the Hud- 
son, and then Teller's Point, which divides Tappan 
Sea from Haverstraw Bay, which is another en- 
largement of the river, about as wide but quite as 
long as Tappan Sea. Before we came to Tappan 
Sea, Ave passed a continued high cliff to the left, 
which, after an interruption of about twelve miles, 
was resumed, — from four hundred to six hundred 
feet high, — composed chiefly of perpendicular stone 
near the top, said by some to be basaltic, though 
this is doubted by others, who think it granite. 
Sandstone is found under this. Pass between Stony 
and Verplanck Points, made- memorable in the 
Revolutionary War, and enter that tract of country 
called the Highlands. The mountains here arc 
from one thousand to twelve hundred feet high, 
and rise directly from the water. St. Anthony's 
Nose is a promontory on the right, having a fancied 
resemblance in shape to the human nose. At 



24 DIARY OF A 

Breakneck Hill also, where the Highlands end, is a 
striking conformation of rock, resembling a human 
profile. We here open into Newburgh Bay, where 
the river becomes wider and the contiguous country 
subsides. To the south-west is to be seen, at the 
distance of twenty or thirty miles, Skunnemunk 
Mountains. Between those and Butter Hill, which 
makes the northern extremity of the Highlands on 
the western, as Breakneck Hill does on the eastern, 
side of the river, is a valley running almost the 
whole way from the Hudson to Newark Bay, from 
which the water actually flows both ways ; that is, 
north-east to the Hudson, and, with a small interval 
between, south-west to Newark Bay by the Passaic, 
through which valley it is thought that the Hudson 
at some remote period made its way to the ocean, 
but by what convulsion of nature it afterwards 
forced its way through the Highlands, which are 
generally much more elevated ground, cannot be 
known. 

We parted with Lydig at his famous waterworks 
at Buttermilk Falls. The water there falls a great 
distance down the side of almost perpendicular 
rock directly into the river. He told us that Gantz- 
hook is Goose Point ; Kinderhook, Children's Point ; 
Manhatten, Manhatus ; Spuyten Duyvel, in spite of 
the Devil, because a Dutchman said he would 



VISIT TO NEWPORT, ETC. 25 

[swim ?] across there in spite of the Devil, but was 
drowned. Pass Windsor and Newburgh to the left, 
and Fishkill Landing to the right. The town of 
Fishkill is five miles from the river, but the Land- 
ing is a pleasant place, and said to contain very 
pleasant society. We dined and took tea on deck 
under an awning. The full moon rising in the 
evening over the mountains, scattering her beams 
on the water, and rendering visible the surrounding 
majestic scenery, produced a romantic effect. This 
was particularly observable in Miss Phillips, who 
was so enchanted as to wish to continue on board 
all night. At about ten o'clock, we reached Pough- 80 
keepsie. We found it well laid out and built, — 
the principal streets paved, — containing a popula- 
tion of thirty-five hundred. At Forbes's Tavern, a 
good house, found Mr. Ed. Tilghman, of Philadel- 
phia, with his wife and daughter, and Mrs. Hare 
and a son (Powell) and daughter, on their way to 
the Springs, but waiting for their carriage, which 
was on the way up the river in a packet boat, and 
was [would be] four or five days in reaching 
Poughkeepsie. 

Friday, July 21st. Spent this day, which was 
very sultry, in Poughkeepsie, as did Messrs. Tilgh- 
man, Potter, and Law, with their families, Mrs. 
and Miss Phillips, Mrs. Hare and children, &c. 



26 DIARY OF A 

Mrs. Tilghman, Mrs. Howard (wife of the hero of 
that name, and [of the] father of our fellow-trav- 
ellers), and Mrs. Philhps, were sisters, daughters 
of Benjamin Chew, late chief-justice of Pennsyl- 
vania. 

Saturday, July 22d. At four o'clock a.m., em- 
barked on board the steamboat " Car of Neptune." 
Found on board near one hundred passengers. We 
thought this boat as to accommodations, machinery, 
and velocity, inferior to any we had been in, yet 
we made way at the rate of seven or eight miles 
per hour. At Esopus, so called, which is Kingston 
on the west shore (which was burnt by the British 
troops in the Kevolutionary War), took in a Mr. 
Huych, of Dutch descent, who told us that he once 
owned all the land which now makes the city of 
Hudson. It was then a part of Claverack, or Clo- 
verleaf, so called from a fancied resemblance of the 
cliffs on the shore to a leaf of clover. Dutchess 
County to our right is now considered very pro- 
ductive both in grain and grass, a quality entirely 
owing to the use of plaster, for before that it was 
uncommonly [sterile]. On the eastern shore, for 
a great length of way, we pass many elegant gen- 
tlemen's seats, most of which belong to the Liv- 
ingston family. One in particular belonged to 
General Montgomery, whose widow, a sister of 



VISIT TO NEWPORT, ETC. 27 

Chancellor Livingston, still resides there. Hudson 
is a city ; stands on a point which makes from the 
eastern shore, at the head of ship navigation, and 
contains five thousand inhabitants, but is said to be 
rather on the decline. Opposite to it is Athens, — 
a small, pleasant village. As we approach Albany, 
the river becomes shoaler, and is obstructed by 
islands. The Omrslaugli, so called, is a bar across 
the river about a mile below Albany, where vessels 
often get aground. We had landed and received 
passengers at most of the considerable places on the 
river, and reached Albany at half-past four p.m. 83 
Took lodo:in2:s at Caldwell's with Messrs. Reed and 
Lane from Boston, who had been fellow-travellers 
for several days. Took leave of Mrs. Phillips and 
daughter at the hotel. They leave town for Sara- 
toga to-morrow. Albany has doubled its size since 
we saw it in 1805. 

Sunday, July 23d. Took a Dutch, wagon for 
Lebanon. Dined at New Store village, at the 
house of our old acquaintance, Jonathan Hoag, 
who died three years since. The house is now 
kept by his son, and is decent. To Hull's, at Leba- og 
non Springs. Found Mr. Smith, the famous trav- 
eller, from Carolina, with his family ; Mr. Van 
Buren, Democratic Attorney-General of New York, 
and some others. 



28 DIARY OF A 

Monday, July 24th. The ordinary temperature 
of the water in the baths is about 72°, but we 
found it expedient to add hot water, so as to raise 
it nearly to the temperature of the atmosphere. 
We very readily perceived the peculiar effect of 
the water is [in] softening and smoothing the skin. 
Judge Benson dined with us, and waited over- 
night in expectation of seeing Mr. Tilghman. 
4 Tuesday, July 25th. Rode to the Shakers' vil- 
lage. Their number in Lebanon is five hundred ; 
in Hancock three hundred. Morril Baker and 
Daniel Hawkins are the deacons or ''men of care''' 
in Lebanon. In their dairy, kitchen, workshops, 
&c., they are very neat and ingenious. On our 
return, we found Mr. Tilghman and family, and soon 
after Mr. Levi and Dr. Earl, at our house. Dr. 
Morse and wife called on their way from Charles- 
town to Utica. Several of the domestics at Hull's 
had lived in gentlemen's families in Boston. Daniel 
Taylor from Dracut, in particular, made himself 
quite useful to us. 

Wednesday, July 26th. Having presented Mrs. 
Dwight of Stockbridge with Hannah More's trea- 
tise on the character and writings of St. Paul, we 
47 took the stage for Northampton. Ascending the 
mountains we had a noble view of the country 
behind us, covered with wheat, &c., to the very 



VISIT TO NEWPORT, ETC. 29 

summits of the hills. Descending towards Pitts- 
field, we have also a fine view to the eastward, of 
a very large part of the county of Berkshire, which, 
though a hilly country, is yet of a milder and less 
rugged aspect than the country we had left. A 
still greater diff"erence is observable in the manners 
of the people. An interesting young man, out of 
health, returning from Ohio, travelled with us; 
appears to have been educated at Cambridge. 
(What is his name 1) Dined at Pierce's, in Wor- 
thington, a good house. Slept at Chapman's at 
Northampton, also a good house. 

Thursday, July 27th. Took a phaeton to Brook- 3G 
field. 

Friday, July 28tli. The stage to Boston. 65 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



)14 078 269 5 



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